Vehemency Now here’s something you cant accuse of being a total Darkthrone clone band. Hailing from Brazil, Ocultan seems to practice Quimbanda religion, but are anyhow evil and ’Satanic’ in their own way. This is the band’s eighth full-length already and if I am not wrong this band has quite a big cult following it in its home country. The cover art, that looks like a general Dark Funeral cover, didn’t convince but fortunately I checked the music itself.

Musically, Ocultan seems to dwell somewhere near Dissection’s melodies. The atmosphere is really morbid and the Archgoat-like judgement day bells in the title track are haunting. All the instruments are executed rather professionally but the interesting production makes it sure that Atombe Unkuluntu does not sound soulless: the guitars have lots of reverb so that the album sounds like its being played in a cave. Vocals range from lower grunts to higher screams. The tom drums, that sound like massive kettledrums somewhere in the background, adds to the primitive atmosphere.

Atombe Unkuluntu does suffer from mediocre material towards the end. While songs like ”Tata Caveira” and ”Rites of Dark Legions” are really nice, my interest starts to vanish during the last songs. Anyhow, the album was quite a nice surprise and Ocultan is certainly enough unique to be worth of checking out.